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Prospects for the Middle East in 2023

Location:

PROSPECTS 2023

Prospects for the Middle East in 2023.

Shia and Kurdish forces may clash on Iraq-Syria border

Location:

IRAQ/SYRIA

The pro-Iranian Badr Organisation is one of the larger PMUs -- groups of mostly Shia armed volunteers established in 2014 to help the army fight IS. They launched a new offensive…

Intra-communal divisions will plague post-IS Iraq

Location:

IRAQ

However, the successful fight against IS has not forged a new sense of unity among Iraq’s communities; instead, it has solidified some divides and created conditions for future…

Syria's ruler will seek to ride out economic protests

Location:

SYRIA

The demonstrations were triggered by Assad’s mid-August announcement of big fuel price increases, only partly mitigated by rises in salaries and pensions. However, they have been…

Kurds will try to keep Iraq out of the Gaza conflict

Location:

IRAQ

The Gaza conflict has led to a resurgence of attacks by Iran-backed armed groups on US forces, breaking the earlier unofficial truce. Some of those attacks have targeted bases in…

Relations between Iraqi and Syrian Kurds worsen

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SYRIA/IRAQ

This is part of a wider rift between Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Syrian Kurdish forces, the latter divided among themselves. The KRG closed two border…

Turkish attacks on Syrian Kurds will help Damascus

Location:

SYRIA

This came days after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed that Russia and Syrian government forces could establish positions near Ain Issa, as a counter to…

Luck and opportunity advance Russian aims in Syria

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RUSSIA/SYRIA

The US troop withdrawal from the Kurdish-controlled region and Turkey's paused invasion created an opportunity for Russia to intervene and avert a wider conflict. US President…

Turkey will shift focus to Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq

Location:

TURKEY

Since the breakdown of the peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in July 2016, Erdogan’s policy of all-out violence has to outward appearances smashed the Kurds’…

Syria players’ next steps hinge on US withdrawal plans

Location:

SYRIA

Confusion still reigns over US military policy on Syria two months after US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a withdrawal. Washington is seeking a deal between Kurdish…